The over 50-year-old CEO of Vodafone Germany Hannes Ametsreiter has recently been learning how to write apps or coding with all his executives. He said that this is a skill that every Germany’s top executive should learn in order to “embrace digital". This is the mindset of striving for continuous improvement that enables Germany to maintain its leadership in advanced technology for centuries. 繼續閱讀 →

A commentary in a local newspaper by retired People’s Bank of China (PBOC) governor Zhou Xiaochuan suggests Hong Kong should continue to be a testing ground in experimenting new regulatory approaches and technologies for China through which the government can identify measures for closing regulatory loopholes in the financial sector. 繼續閱讀 →

The US subprime crisis has petered out over the past decade. Yet, its impact on the global financial markets is here to stay. The biggest effect was perhaps on the regulatory front. For example, financial institutions have paid over $150 billion in fines in the US as of mid-last year, and over 300 people, including community bankers, mortgage lenders, real estate brokers and developers were convicted as a result of misconducting during the financial crisis in 2007, according to the Financial Times. 繼續閱讀 →

JPMorgan Chase, the largest US bank in deposit taking, committed 5,000 extra employees “to fix risk and compliance issues after a slew of investigations by regulatory authorities". HSBC also hired an additional 1,800 employees, making a total of 6,000 staff since the end of 2016 for its compliance operation. Similarly, Citi, another multinational financial institution, has engaged nearly 30,000 staff for internal control functions. 繼續閱讀 →

Have you ever wondered why Hong Kong as an international financial center is unable to produce even one financial technology (fintech) “unicorn"? That is: a startup with a valuation of over $1 billion. Meanwhile, mainland China has 17 unicorns with a total valuation exceeding $111 billion, according to Hurun Greater China Unicorn Index released last month. Two international consultants, KPMG and McKinsey, also confirmed China’s leading position in the global fintech arena. 繼續閱讀 →

The Hurun Greater China Unicorn Index published last month by the Hurun Research Institute listed 120 “unicorn" startups with a valuation of at least US$1 billion (HK$7.8 billion) each, with a combined overall valuation exceeding three trillion yuan. 繼續閱讀 →